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TECHNOLOGY Saturday 19 auguSt 2017

Hollywood’s hacking pains are bigger than movie leaks

By TALI ARBEL Bay within 24 hours of air-
AP Technology Writer ing. Any show on HBO, any
NEW YORK (AP) — Piracy is movie, the moment it’s re-
a long-running and even leased, on the first day, you
routine issue for Hollywood, see it on pirated internet
whether it’s street vendors streams.”
hawking bootleg DVDs on But hackers released an
street corners or video up- email from HBO in which
loaded to file-sharing sites the company expressed
like Pirate Bay. Now cyber- willingness to pay them
criminals are also putting $250,000 as part of a nego-
embarrassing chatter and tiation over data swiped
other company secrets at from HBO’s servers. Wheth-
risk. er or not HBO ever intend-
The reputational risk from ed to follow through with
leaked email is much more the offer, the email raised
difficult to calculate than questions among security
any financial risk from pi- professionals about the im-
racy. “In some ways, that portance of the data.
risk can be higher because Besides upcoming epi-
you have no way of know- sodes, the HBO data dumps
ing what’s in those emails,” included what appeared
said Erik Rasmussen of Kroll This Dec. 19, 2014, file photo shows an exterior view of the Sony Pictures Plaza building in Culver to be contact informa-
Cyber Security. City, Calif. Piracy is a long-running and even routine issue for Hollywood. tion of Hollywood actors ,
The cataclysmal event in Associated Press a month’s worth of emails
the back of everyone’s criminals “advertise their ill- funded by the Motion Pic- it is TV’s most pirated show. of one employee, sensitive
mind is the Sony hack in gotten gains,” there is now ture Association of Ameri- The show is still a massive hit internal documents like job
2014 . While unreleased entertainment content ca, Hollywood’s lobbying for HBO, with high viewer- offer letters and scripts for
movies were leaked, “popping up as basically group. ship and critical acclaim. future episodes.
what’s remembered is the sections of these websites,” One way to overcome As for the recent hacks, A person familiar with the
chaos unleashed amid a Rasmussen said. pirates is to make pro- episodes of “Curb Your situation, speaking on con-
network shutdown and the Some people believe that grams widely and cheap- Enthusiasm,” ‘’Insecure,” dition of anonymity be-
disclosure of derisive com- video leaks can help gin ly available. Netflix has ‘’Ballers” and several other cause the person wasn’t
ments about such well- up media and viewer at- many shows and mov- shows leaked. authorized to speak pub-
known actors as Ange- tention for a show or mov- ies that are easily acces- It helped that entire sea- licly, said HBO was pro-
lina Jolie and Leonardo Di- ie, but leaking shows and sible around the world for sons weren’t released, forc- active in communicating
Caprio and racially insen- movies does hurt Holly- a single monthly price. In ing viewers to subscribe to with actors ahead of their
sitive remarks about then- wood’s take, especially if April, hackers leaked most view the whole show. personal information being
President Barack Obama. it happens before the offi- new episodes of Netflix’s THE FALLOUT AT HBO released to the public. That
Although the recent HBO cial release, Carnegie Mel- “Orange is the New Black” HBO’s hackers demanded may be helping mitigate
leaks so far have fallen well lon professor Michael Smith before their official release a multi-million dollar ran- the impact of what leaks
short of the damage in- said. in early June. That doesn’t som payment, something did occur.
flicted on Sony, there were In a 2014 analysis, Smith seem to have driven cus- HBO refused. Companies that do get
concerns early on that and his co-authors con- tomers away. Netflix add- Because piracy is already hacked should be up front
hackers were setting the cluded that a movie’s box- ed more than 5 million sub- prevalent, the leak of sev- with customers, employees
stage for an embarrassing office revenue dropped scribers in the April-to-June eral scattered TV episodes and other affected parties
sequel for Hollywood. 19 percent, on average, period, the largest increase might not have been as soon as possible, said
PIRACY STILL A PROBLEM when it was leaked ahead ever for that quarter. enough to force such a Richard Levick, the head
While the attention is on of the theatrical release, Separate from HBO’s re- payment, said Alex Heid, of crisis-management firm
leaked emails, that’s not to compared with a leak af- cent run-ins with hack- chief research officer at Levick. “You can’t sweep
say Hollywood isn’t worried ter the movie hit theaters. ers, upcoming “Game of risk management firm Se- it under the rug,” he said.
about piracy. The research was part of a Thrones” episodes have curityScorecard. “Pirated “You can’t be opaque
On online forums where Carnegie Mellon initiative leaked several times, and content ends up on Pirate about it.”q
Turner is latest to plan

sports streaming service

By TALI ARBEL cer with the UEFA Champi- keep customers hooked
AP Technology Writer ons League and UEFA Eu- on the $100-and-up cable
NEW YORK (AP) — Turner ropa League. Higher-profile bundle. But it’s getting easi-
Sports is the latest TV com- sports on Turner’s TV chan- er to find sports online.
pany to announce a sports nels, such as baseball and Major sports channels
streaming service as tradi- basketball, won’t move to come with cheaper, slim-
tional television companies the new service. Instead, mer web versions of the
chase millennial audienc- Turner is looking for new bundle, like Sling and You-
es. deals with content owners Tube TV . Amazon, Twit- Napoli’s Jorginho celebrates after scoring during a Champions
The service, expected and leagues. ter and Facebook are ex- League playoff round, first leg soccer match between Napoli
next year in the U.S., has Live sports get TV’s biggest perimenting with televising and Nice at San Paolo stadium in Naples, Wednesday, Aug. 16,
signed up European soc- ratings and have helped games. q 2017.
Associated Press